What Once Would Be
by InzanityFirez
Summary: Several months after declining the throne to 'Odin', Thor has discovered Loki's ruse and confronts him. Their confrontation should have led to Loki's death, but when he awakes, instead of death he finds a familiar face. That of his brother, Thor, when he was but a child. Thor is defenseless, but Loki might not have the heart to kill his brother after all.


**One-shots aren't my fave. But this was supposed to be a one-shot. But now there's no way, I can already tell. So I think it'll be just a few chapters long, perhaps? No big plot-line, just brotherly reconciliation and such. XD Enjoy!~**

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Small arms squeezed him with uncanny strength, a blonde head was buried against stomach, and a litany of 'we'll fix this' and 'I'll save you' hung in the air from a child's light voice.

Loki wasn't sure how it had escalated so quickly, but moreover, he had no idea what to do about it.

...

"_No_! You _lie_! Even you would not go so far!" Thor's voice thundered in the hall.

Months had passed since Thor had declined the throne and left for Midgard, and Loki had taken up Odin's form to rule. But his ruse had been decidedly short-lived, as Thor had found him out and when confronted, a rueful Loki had admitted to what came as a painful truth for Thor: Odin was dead.

Loki had killed him.

Loki stood before his brother calmly, he wore his own form now and faced the raging Thunder God evenly. His lips were curved into a faint, amused smirk, and his eyes lacked warmth. This was it then, the reckoning, Loki had finally done something that even Thor could not forgive. He had murdered Thor's beloved [bastard] father. A deed which, he assured himself, gave _him_ only pleasure.

"Go so far?" Loki chuckled. "Brother," he spoke the word in a way that was more taunting than affectionate, "I nearly destroyed Midgard for the throne. Several times I nearly killed you. And you think I would balk at raising blade against _Odin_, the root of all misfortune?"

Thor was livid, and his furious gaze bore into Loki as if he might compel him to surrender with his eyes alone. "He is our father!"

"_Your_ father." Loki corrected.

"We are brothers!" Thor insisted. "You remembered that, in the end. You nearly sacrificed yourself for Jane, and then for me."

Loki gestured to himself pointedly. "Do I look very sacrificed to you, brother?" he drawled.

Thor's expression became frustrated for a moment, before he took a few steps closer to Loki who stood his ground unreservedly. "You do not have the power to kill our Father. Where have you imprisoned him?"

Loki sighed. Was it that Thor so gravely underestimated him, or overestimated the aging All-Father? "I approached him in the guise of a guard, but I changed in the end, just in time for the mighty Odin to know who had slain him."

Thor stiffened and crossed the distance between them then as he grabbed Loki's collar and hauled him forward. "Enough of your games, Loki. Where is Father?"

Laughter rang in the hall, Loki could not help it, his brother was really too comical. "I set his remains ablaze, a proper end for the dead king, you would have been proud. And that way, there were no remains to reveal my ruse." And with that, Loki saw it for a moment, a trickle of doubt and dread in Thor's gaze as Loki's words pierced his thick skull.

"You cannot have." Thor said lowly, and he stared intently at Loki, as if to glean the lie from his expression.

Foolish Thor should have known by now that he could never read Loki, how many times had he proven that? But he had nothing to hide this time. Loki allowed his expression to become more somber, colder, and he said simply. "Odin is dead, Thor. I did not imprison him, I cannot revive him, nor would I if I could. You are the last of his line. So shall we fight, or do you wish to continue pointlessly telling me what I can or cannot have done?"

Thor's expression stilled a moment before grief wracked it. His clenched fist fell from Loki's shirt as he stumbled back a step and allowed the news to hit him. "He...he is truly..."

"He's dead." Loki confirmed, almost softly as he watched his would-be brother's turmoil.

Thor stared down at the ground for a moment, and Loki could almost physically see the damage the blow had dealt to his heart. And then Thor's gaze slid back up to Loki, furious and cold. "You've gone too far."

Loki snorted lightly, and a wry, bitter smile curved his lips for just a moment. "Yes, brother...I have."

"_You are not my brother_." Thor's snarled words echoed into the hall just as his fist collided with Loki's face and sent him hurlting several feet back.

There was an explosion of pain in his face, and he could feel the warmth of blood that trickled down his chin from where he'd bitten his lip. But strangely, the pain he felt most keenly was one that he had not expected. Thor had finally done what Loki had done his merry best to goad him into doing, to admit the truth he had challenged him on so many times, to declare that they were not brothers.

So why did those words feel like a knife wrenched into his heart?

Loki started to rise, but Thor was upon him, a furious medley of fists and blows, the occasional shouted curses and lethal admonishments. Would he die today, would Thor in the end be the one to kill him? Was his last trick as the God of Mischief to be forcing the one who claimed to love him the most to end him with his own hands?

_No_.

Loki let forth a surge of power that blasted Thor back and sent him flying a moment as he rose and wiped his mouth. He would not be sacrificed, he refused to die here, not without fighting. Once and for all, he would see who was truly the strongest between them, the most _worthy_.

Speaking of which...

Thor's outstretched hand was soon met with Mjolnir, and lightning crackled outside of the palace. Others would come soon, to see what had brought down the Thunder God's wrath, what had caused the commotion. Either way, his play-acting of Odin would be up whether he won or lost. "You will pay for what you've done, Loki. You will harm no one else I love." he shouted.

Loki chuckled. "And here I thought I _was_ one that you love." he teased, before his expression hardened and he prepared himself. "Stop me, if you think you can."

Thor took the challenge like an insult, and had seemed only angrier by Loki's accusation of love. "Loki!" he charged the other, and what proceeded next was a fight that seemed ages and lasted only seconds. Mjolnir struck, Loki dodged the brunt but was glanced, he retaliated with a blast of magic that Thor stumbled back from but did not fall, and somehow the pair had begun to grapple. It was almost like old times, rolling about the floor of the hall, a flurry of fists, blood, and hot tempers. This is what Loki knew they were meant for, this is what they had _always_ been meant for. To fight, until only one remained. There could not be two princes of Asgard, and only one king.

But then all at once, Loki found himself pinned under Thor's weight as he lifted his hammer high above his head to strike Loki, a blow that he knew in that instant would finish him. He had no defense, it was too late, Thor would not leave him weighted down this time. Loki would die here, in the very throne hall he had murdered Odin in. How fitting.

His life flashed before his eyes, a strange series of memories that he could not considered good or bad. There were victories and failures, quiet moments of contemplation, boisterous ones with Thor, peaceful moments with Frigga and Odin...the moment where he'd discovered his true heritage...that moment in the end, where Thor had held him crying so earnestly that even Loki could not doubt his love. Did he have regrets? Had he fulfilled himself? Why did his heart feel so incomplete-

Mjolnir struck, and the sound of thunder filled Loki's ears as all went dark.

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**I could have been one of those horrible people that ends it here with Thor having killed Loki. But I would cry myself to sleep so...NO! XD I like how they've come out in this one so far. Bwahaha! Reviews are like verbal hugs to me. So ya know. XD Enjoy!~ Witchy~ **


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